During surgery, it is important to keep track of how many needles have been used to ensure that all of them have been removed from a patient when the operation is completed. Counting devices are frequently used in surgery to keep track of the number of used needles. It is also useful to keep track of the number of packages from which the needles have been dispensed so that a quick check of how many needles should be accounted for will provide a simple verification of the needle count, thereby facilitating needle control. Typically, the scrub nurse will simply stack the used needle packages on a tray for later counting. However, the needle packages are prone to become dislodged and lost on the floor of the operating room so that occasionally miscounts occur.
In the past, there have been developed suitable devices for counting used surgical needles. These are the subjects of U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,658 granted on Apr. 17, 1973 to John D. Eldridge, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,069 granted to John D. Eldridge, Jr. on May 16, 1976; U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,802 granted to Samuel L. Freitag on Feb. 22, 1977 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,140 granted to Robert H. Thrun on Jan. 6, 1981. There remains a need for an effective verification of the needle count.